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Neither were they particularly concerned about ensuring the breed purity of the animals that they raised. Cross-breeding aimed at achieving, empirically, a better return had always been common.

The native breeds in the territory studied are animals adapted to the hard mountain climate conditions, where they spend most of their life cycle. The main breed has been the ''terreña'' in Álava, the ''betizu'' on the Atlantic side of the watershed, except for Las Encartaciones in Bizkaia which is home to the ''monchina''. Another common native breed is the ''Pyrenean ''cow, which suffered a significant decline in recent decades, but which has now recovered somewhat in number.